Newsom’s Top Lawyer Tells Doj To Look At Trump Instead

Gavin Newsom’s top legal adviser challenged Donald Trump’s attorney general pick on Tuesday night to direct his investigatory attention to the president instead of the governor’s wife and associates.

In a letter to acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, David Sapp, Newsom’s legal affairs secretary, accused the Department of Justice of targeting the president’s perceived enemies, including the governor.

Sapp said the Justice Department has poured “substantial resources” over the last year into investigating Newsom, his office and the business and personal affairs of his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom. Sapp asserted that after Newsom’s office had provided information that an allegation about the office was baseless, the probe pivoted to unrelated matters. Sapp described the inquiries as “based on conspiracy theories peddled by rightwing operatives and outlets.”

“Calling this investigation a fishing expedition is actually too generous,” Sapp wrote. “If your commitment to rooting out corruption were serious, the enormous resources that you have poured into this investigation looking for a crime that does not exist would be focused elsewhere. You need only train your attention on the open-air corruption market that the White House has become.”

The letter marked the latest attempt by Newsom’s administration to frame the investigations on its own terms, portraying it as a politically-motivated act of retribution. A person familiar with the matter said the investigations began in California, not Washington and have focused, respectively, on the first partner’s taxes and on Newsom’s former chief of staff and potentially current aides.

Sapp acknowledged in the letter that DOJ policy prohibits the investigation of a sitting president, but he said that does not preclude looking into allegations of corruption by Trump’s family members and associates.

“The United States Department of Justice selectively leaked uncorroborated details about ongoing investigative matters involving the governor and first partner, so it should not be a problem for you to confirm whether US DOJ has opened any investigations into the instances of apparent public corruption detailed above involving the president and his allies,” he wrote.